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Fate, Time, and Language

An Essay on Free Will
by David Foster Wallace
Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will. Columbia Univ. Dec. 2010. c.240p. ed. by Steven M. Cahn & Maureen Eckert. ISBN 9780231151566. $60; pap. ISBN 9780231151573. $19.95. PHIL
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This is the late Wallace's previously unpublished senior undergraduate philosophy thesis (1985, Amherst Coll.). He writes on the classical philosophical problem of fatalism, which is essentially the problem of asserting individual free will. As an undergraduate Wallace learned the logic needed to refute a claim of fatalism and the need to propose new logical systems for making his argument against fatalism. This book includes New York Times Magazine editor James Ryerson's introductory essay to establish context; a republication of philosopher Richard Taylor's essay to which Wallace was specifically responding; and a number of previously published papers that feature objections to fatalism or refutations by fatalists, e.g., an essay by coeditor Cahn (philosophy, Columbia Univ.).
VERDICT Wallace's senior thesis is accessible to all who have a basic understanding of logic. This book is for any reader who has enjoyed the works of Wallace and for philosophy students specializing in fatalism.
Reviewed by Jim Hahn, Univ. of Illinois Lib., Urbana , Nov 15, 2010
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